To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) is one of the best-loved novels of American literature. It was authored by Harper Lee, who stopped writing after publishing it: it is, therefore, one of those strange cases in literature (like Salinger or Juan Rulfo) in which a writer says everything he or she has to say in just one or two books. The film adaptation ws made in 1962, directed by Robert Mulligan, and it includes the greatest performance by Gregory Peck (he was awarded an Oscar), in the character of Atticus Finch, a lawyer and widower with two children who awakes love and admiration in everyone who watches the film.
Both the book -which I also heartily recommend- and the film are used very often in American colleges as sources for discussion and analysis. Here you have a PDF with the questions we will debate on Tuesday.
I personally consider the movie one of my favourites of all time, along with poetic black and white classics such as the Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray, La Grande Illusion by Jean Renoir, Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa, and The Man who Shot Liberty Valance by John Ford. Real art in cinematic form. Hope you like it as much as I do.
